Water Law On August 20, 2021, the Deputy Director of the Division of Water Rights (Deputy Director) of the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) issued water curtailment orders for the remainder of August and for all of September to approximately 4,500 water right holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed (Delta Watershed). These curtailment orders affect post-1914, pre-1914, and riparian rights, though in different ways, as described further below ...
On August 11, 2021, the California Court of Appeals for the Second District extended the Pebley v. Santa Clara Organics (“Pebley”) Court’s analysis as applied to the admissibility of unpaid medical liens. Based on the Court’s reading of Howell v. Hamilton Meats[1] (“Howell”) and its progeny, the Court in Malak Melvin Abdul Qaadir v. Ubaldo Gurrola Figueroa et al ...
Surfside Collapse – what we know so far: On Thursday, June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:25 a.m., Champlain Towers South, a twelve-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed. The collapse was reported as the third deadliest structural engineering failure in United States history. Ninety-eight people were confirmed dead, only four people were rescued from the rubble ...
September 16, 2021 By: John Epperson The COVID-19 pandemic will likely to be a concern and challenge for employers for longer than anyone had hoped or anticipated. As businesses adjust to what seems to be a “new normal” it is worth a reminder that COVID-19 infection can be a recordable illness on an employer’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”) 300 Injury and Illness Log. OSHA’s recording criteria under 29 CFR 1904 ...
September 28, 2021 By: Joshua M. Robbins When harmed or in heated disputes, companies sometimes think about bringing the “big guns”—law enforcement agencies—into the fight. Often acting through counsel, a business may seek to refer a matter to the government for potential investigation and prosecution of competitors, business counterparties, former employers or employees, or entirely unrelated persons who have victimized the company ...
September 29, 2021 By: Jennifer Guerrero The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) established a new state privacy regulatory agency, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“Agency”), which is responsible for issuing regulations implementing the CPRA (along with enforcement authority) ...
October 6, 2021 By: Jennifer Guerrero While a remote work environment can provide many benefits to all of the parties involved, it also can present significant challenges for organizations that need to remain Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) compliant ...
By Robert S. Cooper The California Court of Appeal issued a landmark decision on September 9, 2021, upholding a trial court’s striking (dismissing) of a PAGA lawsuit because Plaintiff could not establish that trial of the matter would be “manageable” in court. In Wesson v ...
October 12, 2021 By: Artin Betpera Calls to reassigned numbers have presented an endless source of legal risk for any company that calls or texts consumers for informational or marketing purposes. Reassigned number class actions brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act have resulted in eight-figure settlements, and present unique challenges when defending ...
October 19, 2021 By: John Epperson EPA released its plan for actions to address PFAS contamination on October 18, 2021. This is an aggressive and wide-sweeping plan that reaches across multiple statutory authorities. Much of the Roadmap will require regulatory rulemaking to implement, providing the regulated community an opportunity to get involved and shape the final rules ...
November 5, 2021 By: John Epperson The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published its much-anticipated Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) regarding COVID-19 vaccination and testing on November 5, 2021. The ETS went into effect immediately upon publication in the Federal Register with requirements phased in over 30 to 60 days ...
November 22, 2021 By: Jonathan Kendrick and Manuel Fishman In the coming weeks, the City of San Francisco’s Department of Environment is expected to submit a new Climate Action Plan for Mayor London Breed’s approval. The Climate Action Plan will provide a roadmap for the City of San Francisco (the “City”) to pursue ambitious new climate action goals that were added to the City’s Environment Code in late July 2021 (the “Climate Goals”) ...
December 17, 2021 By: Melissa Richards Earlier this year, we reported that the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CA DFPI) published new regulations requiring all existing commercial lenders and brokers licensed under the California Financing Law (CFL) to transition their licenses over to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) electronic portal by December 31, 2021 ...
January 31, 2022 By: Tracy A. Warren and Yvonne A. Ricardo 2022 has many California employers suffering from PAGA fatigue. Too many times, plaintiffs’ attorneys use the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”) to drive up settlement demands, gaining large attorneys’ fees, over what are seemingly nuisance claims ...
February 10, 2022 By: Tracy A. Warren, Kathryn B. Fox, and Michelle K. Meek On Thursday, February 9, 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would prohibit companies from compelling to arbitration cases where there are allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment, even where an employee has signed an otherwise enforceable arbitration agreement. The bill, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, was previously passed by the U.S ...
By Michael Flynn Under the long-recognized valid when made doctrine, if a loan was not subject to a state usury law when it was made, it does not subsequently become even if it is subsequently sold or assigned to another party. The doctrine long was applied by courts and utilized in secondary market sales, but its application to a non-bank purchaser was rejected by the Second Circuit in 2015 in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC ...
February 18, 2022 By Li-An Leonard As noted in an earlier Buchalter Client Alert, Governor Newsom and legislative leaders reached an agreement to bring back COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave in 2022. On November 9th, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 114 creating California Labor Code § 248.6 and completing the comeback of COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Leave in 2022 or as referred to in this update, 2022 SPSL ...
March 2, 2022 By: Karen N. George and Andrew H. Selesnick HHS has withdrawn its interim final rule requiring arbitrators in the IDR process to select the payment rate closest to the insurers’ median in-network rate (i.e., QPA) under the NSA – an official and significant victory for providers. HHS made this announcement in light of the federal court’s recent decision in Texas Medical Association et al. v ...
March 8, 2022 By: Jarrett S. Osborne-Revis and Robert S. McWhorter On March 7, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Sheen v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., holding that a lender does not owe a borrower a tort duty of care in considering a loan-modification request.[1] Sheen, like many other loan-modification cases resulting from the 2008 recession, arose from a dispute between the plaintiff Kwang K ...
March 11, 2022 By Philip Nulud The metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are common buzzwords as of late. Many brands such as Nike®, Victoria Secret®, TaylorMade®, and others are rushing to stake their claims on “goods” in the metaverse, as well as NFTs. Why are they doing so, and why is it important to protect your intellectual property as it pertains to the metaverse and NFTs? Let’s start with a quick explanation on the metaverse and NFTs ...
March 16, 2022 By Braeden Mansouri and Alicia Guerra On February 15, California’s preeminent institution of higher education, UC Berkeley (“UCB”), began emailing student applicants that UCB may be forced to withdraw admissions offers as a result of a recent California Court of Appeal decision ...
